New Delhi:
The BJP announcement of seat-sharing in Bihar has publicly excluded Pashupati Paras – Chirag Paswan's estranged uncle who controls a faction of the Lok Janshakti Party – leaving him completely isolated. The 71-year-old, who seemed to hold all the cards three years ago, splitting the LJP and being rewarded with a place in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet, is now fighting for political survival.
Sources said Mr Paras will resign from the Union Cabinet and his MLAs have clashed with the INDIA alliance, which was vying for an alliance with Chirag Paswan a week ago. Mr Paras had warned about this last week, saying he is “free to go anywhere”.
Mr Paswan, who once described himself as “Hanuman” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has stuck with the NDA and got only five seats out of the six he sought. The list, however, includes Hajipur, the seat that once belonged to his late father, Ram Vilas Paswan.
Pashupati Paras, brother of Ram Vilas Paswan, is the sitting MP from Hajipur. If he tries to hold the chair, he would have to face his cousin this time. Such a battle promises to be one of the most watched.
The latest polls in the state made it clear that the Paswan vote of 6 per cent has gone to Chirag Paswan – a situation that the BJP had taken into account by removing Pashupati Paras from the seat-sharing equation.
Ram Vilas Paswan had won against Hajipur eight times, including four consecutive wins in 1996.
The rest of Chirag Paswan's list consists of Samastipur, Jamui, Vaishali and Khagaria – among the six seats won by the undivided LJP in 2019.
The only fly in the NDA ointment could be Chirag Paswan's strained relationship with Nitish Kumar. The Prime Minister has always attributed his party's poor performance in the 2020 Assembly elections to the Paswan factor.
After Pashupati Paras split the LJP – with the alleged acquiescence of the BJP – Chirag Paswan had contested the Assembly elections solo and divided the pro-NDA votes. It had endangered the JD(U).
Because they ultimately had far fewer seats than the BJP, the JD(U) had to relinquish the big brother position to it.
Many JD(U) leaders had privately called it a move by the BJP to clip Nitish Kumar's wings and gain an upper hand in Bihar.
Since the 2020 elections, Mr Kumar and Chirag Paswan have not recovered.